Apollo 11 Moon Landing Delivered 40 Years Of Spin-Off Tech

Who says government can't ever do anything right? As the world celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing this week, we're also commemorating the entire NASA-led project to send Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on their historic space mission -- a massive, ambitious undertaking that has paid dividends far beyond the planting of the American flag on Luna.

Quick Clicks: High-Tech Spin-Offs From The Moon Landings

And no, we're not talking about Tang.

The sugary drink is actually one of the few products associated with the Apollo missions that NASA didn't have a hand in developing. But the host of NASA's technology "spin-offs" -- conveniently documented in the space agency's annual publication of the same name -- is legion.

From memory foam to freeze-dried food, the list of technologies and products that came directly out of our space exploits and found markets in the private sector is impressive. Perhaps none so much as the computer-based advances that resulted from the particular requirements of space exploration -- including such developments as integrated inventory and process management systems for the complex process of building a rocket capable of reaching the moon, improvements to computer-assisted manufacturing of complicated space machines and compact, powerful processing power for the spacecraft's own navigation systems.

When President John F. Kennedy gave voice to our lunar ambitions way back in 1961, few people knew that we also were embarking on a computing revolution. In just eight short years, the United States had landed two astronauts in the Sea of Tranquility -- and to get there, huge technological innovations such as the Apollo Guidance Computer played a major part.

It's safe to say that today's high-tech industry owes a debt to those early days of space exploration. No doubt the computing revolution would have happened without the Apollo Program's six successful landings on the moon -- but those missions sure helped kick-start Silicon Valley and the market for IT products.